Belfast City Hall, above, by William Murphy via Wikimedia Commons. Portraits by Lee Pellegrini.
When Boston College held its Commencement Exercises on May 18, 1998, the occasion was not just a graduation ceremony, but a view of history in the making.
Addressing the Class of 1998 and the Alumni Stadium audience, 爱尔兰总理伯蒂·埃亨(Bertie Ahern)公开呼吁最近签署的耶稣受难日协议, 几天之内，爱尔兰共和国和北爱尔兰都将举行公投. As Ahern explained, GFA结束了北爱尔兰长达三十年的冲突和悲剧，即所谓的“麻烦”,” offering hope for the troubled region.
“Just as you graduates are starting on a new journey in life,” he said, “we in Ireland are looking forward to our own new beginning. For the first time since 1918, 整个爱尔兰的人民将有机会投票选出一个共同的, shared vision of their future together.”
By the end of that week, the GFA had been overwhelmingly ratified, 北爱尔兰的新时代开始于恢复自治和权力分享的前景, a focus on civil and political rights, police reform, and demilitarization.
Twenty-five years later, GFA及其遗产是整个北爱尔兰及其他地区反思的主题, including among Boston College’s Irish scholars. [The Irish Studies Program will host a two-day conference this month, “书写麻烦:耶稣受难日协议25周年的视角.”] Disappointments and setbacks, 一些是由于不可预见的情况和事件——尤其是英国脱欧——削弱了该协议所希望的影响, say faculty members. Socially, politically, and economically, Northern Ireland still has a long way to go to shake off the Troubles’ effects.
But does that mean the GFA failed? Not at all, according to the scholars: Above all else, 它阻止了一场几乎不可能解决的血腥内战，至少为繁荣和平等提供了一条道路.
Robert Savage
“The agreement ended what many considered an unsolvable conflict,” said Robert Savage, professor of the practice in the History Department. “这些问题见证了30年的血腥混乱，摧毁了许多人的生命. 最值得注意和不应忽视的是暴力已经结束.”
“Despite periods of interruption, GFA以一种充满活力和创造性的方式恢复了权力下放的政府, so that there is genuine power sharing between people who, prior to 1998, would scarcely speak to one another,” said Professor of History Oliver Rafferty, S.J. Getting to “yes” required bitter foes to put aside longstanding, fervently-held views, 他补充说:反对北爱尔兰存在的共和党人/民族主义者接受了这个国家的现实, as well as the police service—a particular source of controversy—and that Northern Ireland’s status “could not be changed without the consent of the unionist majority”; unionists/loyalists “realized that government would have to be shared to a meaningful degree with the Catholic nationalist minority.”
Retired Associate Professor of History Kevin O’Neill, co-founder of BC’s Irish Studies Program, 他引用了约翰•休谟(John Hume)的勇气(休谟是不列颠哥伦比亚大学的常客和客座教员)，认为他的勇气对GFA至关重要. 作为北爱尔兰主要的天主教政治家和社会民主党和工党的领袖, 休谟意识到“通过创造新的政治制度的协议, he was likely consigning his own party to marginalization. But he considered the end of destructive violence worth the risk.”
事实证明，电子游戏软件在这一过渡时期是北爱尔兰相关活动的中心. In the fall of 1998, the University’s Irish Institute—which for years had offered “cross-border” programs for both Northern Irish and Irish professionals—launched a series of seminars and discussions to help members of the newly created Northern Ireland Assembly prepare for their responsibilities as leaders in government; BC Political Science faculty members Marc Landy, Dennis Hale, and John Tierney were among those involved in the program.
The campus also hosted many of the key figures in the GFA negotiations, 包括休谟和他的诺贝尔和平奖得主大卫·特林布尔(两人都被授予荣誉学位), Martin McGuinness, David Irvine, Gusty Spence and Mo Mowlam. Hume also helped teach a course with Savage and other BC faculty.
Despite the optimism it generated, said faculty experts, the GFA has had its vulnerabilities, not least in the formulation of the Northern Ireland Assembly, 由于民主统一党(DUP)和新芬党(Sinn fassin, 它代表爱尔兰民族主义团体，现在是议会最大的政党. The assembly has not met in nearly a year, 部分原因是民主统一党拒绝同意新芬党选举第一部长.
令人沮丧的是，大会很容易被一个政党破坏，延伸到它所代表的特定社区，奥尼尔说，这个缺陷实际上是实现GFA所必需的:“没有抵制或否决的能力,” he explained, “主要政党的不安全感会阻碍协议的达成.”
Not to be overlooked, say the faculty members, are the deep wounds in Northern Ireland left from the Troubles, and other scars that go back for generations. Society is still divided, Savage noted, with Catholic children attending Catholic schools and Protestant children going to state schools generally viewed as “Protestant”; many young people, especially from working-class backgrounds, struggle to find decent jobs.
奥尼尔指出，未能建立一个“真相与和解进程”, among other things, could aid in addressing the legacy of violence.
Oliver Rafferty, S.J.
Meanwhile, according to Fr. Rafferty, 新教联合主义者认为天主教民族主义者从gfa那里获得了有利地位——部分是心理上的反应, he added, 因为长期以来，新教联合派一直认为它是北爱尔兰社会的主导力量.
Then there’s Brexit, 教职员工注意:这给北爱尔兰之间的关系造成了困难, Ireland, and Great Britain, and in particular exacerbated the stand-off in the assembly, 因为民主统一党和其他联合主义者批评了爱尔兰和英国政府的努力, along with the European Union, 以解决与英国脱欧相关的复杂海关和移民问题，即《电子游戏正规平台》. Within Northern Ireland itself, 大多数选民——包括大多数天主教徒和民族主义者——反对英国脱欧, 而统一派则认为他们与英国的联系受到了欧盟的威胁.
Yet for all the pessimism about post-GFA Northern Ireland, it’s possible to find hope, according to Savage. When he first began working and researching there many years ago, “there were soldiers everywhere, the police traveled in armored cars, and there was a sense of dread in places such as Belfast. That is no longer the case.” While Belfast and Derry still have issues with unemployment, poverty, and segregated neighborhoods, “城市又恢复了生机——穿过贝尔法斯特的拉根河见证了人们的发展, including tourists, back into the city.” The pubs and restaurants are filled with people and music, he added, “a sharp contrast to what they were like even in the 1990s.”
Hume, who died in 2020, 1999年，他在英国广播公司(bbc)发表演讲时，对GFA成立être的原因给出了可能是最明确的总结:“在很多方面, we are all victims in this conflict. 我们能为逝者做的最好的事情就是建立一个新的北爱尔兰作为他们的纪念碑，把过去抛在脑后.”
Sean Smith | University Communications | April 2023